About a week ago there was a power outage during the night time, and in the morning when I turned on my computer and tried to open my web browser, Windows told me that Chrome couldn't be found and asked if I wanted to delete the shortcut.

So first of all, does anyone know how it's possible for Chrome to completely disappear due to an unexpected shutdown?

But it gets worse. I downloaded and reinstalled Chrome, but it won't let me set it as my default browser. Or rather, setting it as my default browser doesn't work. When I click a link in other applications, nothing happens. I've tried setting IE and Firefox as my default browser, and those work, but ever since I reinstalled Chrome I cannot get my system to use it as my default browser.

Halp! Does anyone know how to fix this?

I seem to be experiencing a similar issue as in this thread, except I haven't installed AVG, so I know it's not that. I tried all the troubleshooting steps in that thread and Chrome doesn't show up in the list of applications in my Default Programs settings.